"If a society does not wage a common struggle to attain a common goal with
its women and men, scientifically there is no way for it to get civilized or
developed." -- Mustafa Kemal Ataturk

Citizens participate politically to obtain a share in the allocation of social
resources. But in the contemporary world we see an imbalance characterized by
the relative underparticipation of women. We will evaluate reasons for this
imbalance in Turkey then examine women's participation in elections, public
service, political parties and associations.

While in the Ottoman era women's status was improved over the time when Islamic
social hierarchy was accepted, they were still almost totally deprived of
political rights. Reform edicts made it possible for them to hold some public
offices. There wereassociations headed by women but these functioned as charity
organizations. In 1924, the Kemalist Reforms opened the way for the women to
join the civil service. In 1930, women gained the right to participate in
municipal and, in 1934, national elections. (International Congress on the 50th
Anniversary of Political Rights Granted to Turkish Women, pp. 98-105, 1984) This
emancipation fromabove somehow delayed conscious participation of women in
politics. It was only in the 1980s that Turkish woman began to see herself as a
political actor rather than as a housewife at home with a life based only on her
family.

INVISIBLE BARRIERS

Turkey's parliament provides a way for women to participate in politics but
barriers still exist to their activity:

--Through the modernization process, the belief that being a female politician
would hinder women's traditional family role has lost its significance but not
totally disappeared. Recent research shows 68% of women said involvement would
not create problems with their spouses and that some problems with children
might arise but could be solved.

--Women often prefer other occupations and can view politics as interfering with
their career plans.

--Politics requires huge expenditures and Turkish women do not have much
capital.

--Women do not benefit completely from educational opportunities, a factor
hindering their participation in an elitist democracy. (Koray, pp. 71-74, 1995).

--A prevailing Islamic view views women's nature (fitrat) appropriate to carry
out familial roles while men deal with other issues. (Ergil, 1975). This belief
still lingers on in the 1990s among a significant portion of society which to
some extent does not identify with the secular state and its policies.

VOTING BEHAVIOR

Gunes Ayata states that since voting demands no extra activity, women vote
independently. (Tekeli, 1991, p. 237) This statement reflects a change in
political participation patterns. InäJ1978, Tekeli states that 83.8% of
married couples voted the same way, wives generally following their husbands.
(Kandiyoti,1978, p. 40) In 1962, Ozankaya reached a similar conclusion in
research over 4 villages, showing that 75.4% of husbands said they told their &nbsp;wives
for whom to vote and 18.5% left them a free choice. In comparison, 11% of women
said they vote on their own and 53.4% that they vote in line with their
husband's wishes. (Caporal, 1982, p. 714) The trend over time is that weakened
patriarchal structure and women's entry in the labor force leads to more
independent decisionmaking by women. Researching the relationship between social
situation and voting behavior yields interesting results. Married women
participate in elections more than single or widowed ones. The reason might be
attributed to husband and wife voting as units. However married women still
participate 8% less than their spouses. On the basis of class, petit-bourgeois
and working class women participate 8.9% more than those of the bourgeoisie and
peasantry. In general, working women vote more than housewives, since they are
integrated in the wider society through work. In Turkey's most developed city,
Istanbul, data from 4 polling stations in the 1973-1975 elections showed women
as voting 13.5% less than men. (Kandiyoti, 1978; Unat-Abadan, 1979)

WOMEN IN PUBLIC SERVICE

Turkish women entered parliament in 1934 but the number of female MPs has
decreased in time. (See appendix) This decrease may be explained by the notion
of "symbolic women MPs." In the early Republic, Ataturk was facing
accusations of dictatorship. In order to eliminate this undemocratic image,
women's suffrage was granted in 1934. During the one-party regime women had
secured their place in the parliament. These guaranteed, reserved seats had
begun to be lost when the multi-party regime was established. The struggle for
seats among parties toughened. Conservative tendencies of big parties outlawed
women MPs from parliament. Small parties, with little likelihood of gaining
seats, followed the "symbolic women candidate" model but with little
success. (Unat-Abadan, 1979) &nbsp; In Turkish governments until 1994, only
5 women held 10 ministerial posts in different cabinets. During 1971-1973, posts
asministers of state, health, and culture were held by women In 1987 an elected
woman MP became minister of state. In 1991, a female MP became minister of state
responsible for economy. In the cabinetholding office as of 1993, there were 3
female ministers--two ministers of state and the minister of tourism. (Resmi
Gazete, No: 22572, pp. 1-4). Between 1993 and 1995 a female prime minister was
in office. (State Ministry for Women's Affairs and Social Services, 1994).
Beside the low number of posts, these ministers tended to be in weaker,
shorter-lived governments. (Unat-Abadan, p. 404, 1979) Female MPs usually had
university degrees or were very successful professionals. They had to have more
qualifications in comparison to male colleagues, and they often grew up in very
politicized families. In a survey by Unat-Abadan, 7 of 16 female MPs said that
their father and mother had definite political interests whereas only 1 of 10
male MPs said the same thing; about 60% of female MPs--compared to 40% of the
males--had close relatives who were politicians. This shows that female MPs
experienced more politics in private family life. (Arat, p. 84, 1989) Indeed,
women MPs were often following a family tradition. They entered politics either
as "husband's wife or father's daughter" or because of personal
resentment stemming from a political event affecting their family. (Arat, p. 93,
1984) Tekeli defines this tendency as "widow's right." Female MPs may
enterpolitics to take revenge on behalf of relatives or to act as an heir.
(Tekeli, 1991) In local governments and municipal councils the proportion of
women participants' is greater: &nbsp; In 1984, 0.3% of 2202; in 1989 0.8%
of 2653; and in 1994 0.9% of 3018 of administrative council members were women.
In 1984, 0.6%; in 1989, 0.7%; in 1994, 0.9% of municipal council members were
women. (State Ministry for Women's Affairs and Social Services, 1994) After
1980, 12.1% of Ankara, 4.3% of Istanbul, and 13.2% ofIzmir municipal councils
were composed of women from left-wing parties. (Koray, p. 31, 1995) &nbsp;
In 1984 there were no women mayors but in 1989 0.2% and in 1994 0.4% of mayors
were women. (State Ministry for Women's Affairs and Social Services, 1994) The
reason behind this extended participation in local politics is that municipal
activities are closer to ordinary life and affect family affairs. Also municipal
decisionmaking processes are less important than national politics so women can
be deemed more "capable" of holding the posts. (Unat-Abadan, 1979;
Arat, 1984; Koray,1995; Tekeli 1991) However, although municipal government
seems like a higher area for women's activity, only 10% of Istanbul housewives,
who comprise 52% of all women in Istanbul--are housewives. (Unat-Abadan, 1979) &nbsp;
The founding of the Republic increased the number of women in civil service,
too. The number of female civil servants increased by 1,900% between 1938-1976,
more than six times faster than the number of males. However, the jobs held by
women tended to be defined as more feminine ones (eg., work in nurseries). The
number of female executives tends to decrease at higher ranks because of
traditional social judgements and approaches hindering women's promotion. Also
women tend to leave work when they get married or have children. (International
Congress on the 50th Anniversary of Political Rights Granted To Turkish Women,
1984) A women in the Ministry of Interior must spend as much as 9 additional
years within the central ministry to achieve the status of "district
administrator" in comparison to men. (Lewis, 1983) Again, discrimination is
slowly declining.

WOMEN IN POLITICAL PARTIES

In 1923, there was an attempt to establish a women's party but this received
many criticisms and did not succeed. In the 1931 municipal elections, the
Turkish Women's Federation declared a party program. However this attempt also
met with resent and the Federation's president had to resign. Later, women's
branches of political parties were established. (Guksel, pp. 14, 93) These
branches were ineffective in affecting party decisionmaking. None of them were
aimed at promoting women's rights. They were expected first to mobilize support
for the party among women, then to encourage them to perpetuate their
traditional roles within the family and finally to encourage them to partake in
political and social life. Since protection of traditional family structure
defines women to be at home, active participation of women in politics is
blocked. (Arat, p. 50, 1989) Soon the women branches turned into power centers
which could be mobilized more easily than men. By "women-to-women"
speeches, members of women branches attracted inactive female votes to have male
candidates be elected. (Arat, p. 241, 1989) Both female and male MPs admitted
that male leaders easily coopted women through women branches to extend their
control over women at the same timeas providing them access to politics.(Arat,
p. 103, 1989) After 1980, the women's branches continued their activities
without any formal connection to the parties but with a huge de facto support.
They remained to function as charity organizations. For example, Turkish Women
Promotion Organization which is implicitly supported by the Motherland Party,
perceived women's part in politics as limited to voluntary activities about her
family life. (Tekeli, p. 243, 1991) &nbsp; In the 1973 election, there were
only 75 female candidates compared to 3,296 males. In the 1995 elections, 531 of
12,775 candidates were women. Among the big parties, female candidates comprised
about 5 percent of the list, except in the True Path party (9.63%) and the
Islamic Welfare Party (0%). Proportions were almost always higher in smaller
parties. Also, 12 of 175 independent candidates were women (6.85%). Running as
an independent was bold since the Turkish electorate usually votes for the party
instead of individual candidates. Women's participation as independence and
smaller parties shows a willingness to work hard to express their views even
though they have no chance of winning the election. (Resmi Gazete, Volume
22485,)

WOMEN'S ASSOCIATIONS

There are 211 associations for women in Turkey. (State Ministry for Women's
Affairs and Social Services, 1994) In general they aim to integrate women in
social, economic and political life.However, as noted above, most of them
function as charity groups. By 1983, they did begin to publish journals for
woman, hold meetings, and conduct petition campaigns. Outside these activities,
though, 25% of women questioned found these movements not to be useful. 33% said
they were interested neither in politics nor in women's movements. 20% stated
they were interested in women's issues but only 7% participated actively.
(Koray, p. 60, 1995) &nbsp; Some newer associations, however, show promise,
especially Ka-der which aims to support female candidates in national politics
with financial and educational assistance.

CONCLUSION

In the 1990s Turkish women seems to participate in politics more actively than
before. This may attributed to rapid modernization and eradication of the
patriarchal, traditional social structure. Women are more active in local than
national politics. In civil service, occupation and career opportunities are
improved but still unequal. In political parties, women remain as "vote
gatherers" rather than "decisionmakers." Still, many--if not
all--women have discovered their status outside of the kitchen and entered the
political as well as the socio-economic realm.